Tips to crack CAT 2019 as a Working Professional

Writing any competitive exam alongside working a full time job is always a tedious task and requires oodles of patience and perseverance. Also, if in case you work in a demanding job profile and industry, taking out time from such a busy schedule for studying becomes all the more complicated and uninteresting. So, what should a working professional do if he/she aims to crack the CAT 2019 exam, one of the toughest management entrance exams of the country to secure an admission into any of the prestigious management institutes like the IIMs, MDI, FMS among others alongside holding a full-time job which would give them an edge over the other candidates? How can they manage the limited amount of time they have in their kitty in a way which leaves them with ample time to study, learn, prepare, write mocks, and make the cut in the upcoming CAT 2019 Exam?

The fastest and best way to crack the CAT 2019 exam for a working professional would undoubtedly be by preparing for the exam online. Online CAT Coaching helps candidates attend lectures as per their convenience, saves time and are cost-effective as well. The right coachings would provide Mock and Practice Tests as well as personalised mentorship to the students so they may perform better in the exam and produce better results.

Enrol in the right CAT 2019 Coachingto save yourself the extra effort and stress to physically attend a traditional coaching and to fight the urge to fall asleep on your chair. CareerAnna, India’s Largest Learning Platform, is an excellent one-stop solution for all MBA aspirants which is known to provide high quality lectures in the form of videos, mock tests, flawless course modules and personalised mentorship which go beyond the main exam and also assist for the WAT-PI-GD rounds respectively.

Notably, there are only 6-7 months left for the CAT 2019 exam so you really need to pull up your socks! However, you must be familiar with the CAT 2019 Exam Pattern and Syllabus to kickstart your preparation.

Given below is the CAT 2019 Exam Pattern and the Syllabus for your perusal:

In the CAT Exam, there are 3 sections namely Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension (VARC), Quantitative Aptitude (QA) and Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation (LRDI).There are 100 questions in total in the CAT exam paper out of which 75 questions have no negative marking and the rest 25 have a negative marking of -1 mark. 3 marks are awarded per question for every correct answer and the exam needs to be attempted in a duration of 3 hours and every section demands 60 minutes each.

You need to devote at least 2-3 hours towards preparing for CAT 2019. You can divide your preparation in 3 phases, viz;

Brushing up basics: To nail any exam, you must have your concepts clear. If there are certain areas you are unsure about, you should tick them off your list in the very initial stages of your CAT 2019 preparation. For Quantitative Ability and Data Interpretation, you must know all the concepts and formulas properly. DI requires a lot of calculation, so start tackling this section early on and identify any issues that you face so you can fix them as early as possible. Do try to solve some calculation-intensive questions every day and read books regularly as a general CAT aspirant.

Intense Practice: This is easier said than done for anyone, especially for working professionals. Due to the scarcity of time, they would just run through a handful of chapters and think they are all set- which is so not true! One should rather try getting as much practice as they can, especially in areas where they are the weakest. Good practice also gives you a lot of confidence to perform well in the exam and reduces your chances of messing up on the D-day.

Test yourself! It is a rule written in stone that to ace the CAT exam, you have to write Mocks, Mocks and more Mocks! In case you have attempted CAT before and have scored extremely well, say 95+ percentile, and you are retaking the test to improve your scores, writing 50+ Mocks would then be a great idea. The purpose of a Mock Test is to figure out ones’ strength and weaknesses and fine tune the time-distribution during the exam. Mocks help you align the speed and accuracy which will be replicated during the main exam day. Therefore, you should take them seriously and try to attempt them as efficiently as you can. Mock Tests will help you set expectations on the aggregate score that you will obtain in your CAT 2019 exam. However, it should not be the case that you overdo them, keeping aside your preparation and revisions. Study from few but recommended CAT Exam resources and take one Mock Test per week and you are good to go! Identify areas which require more improvement from your end and tweak your study plan accordingly for the subsequent week to work on them, before you write another Mock and discover another bolt to be fixed. To understand the exam pattern, you can also refer to the previous years’ exam papers.

The aforementioned strategy, coupled with a great CAT 2019 Online Coaching will help you prepare better and achieve sure shot success.